Childhood Memories
by FunkEater
Summary: When Name thinks about childhood, that smile is the only thing that pops into his mind. A response to Ninja-chan's Lunaescence Challenge: "Childhood Memories" Male!ReaderXUni OC X Uni
1. 1 Water

No this is not yuri and yes, the reader's male.

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo hitman reborn or any of its characters.

Reader is age 6

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**Water:**

The sun was at its highest that morning, needlessly reminding the world that it truly was summer. School was out and children were free to enjoy their days playing and spending their break as they please. It was different for (Name). Instead of spending every summer playing soccer and video games, he spends his summers at his grandmother's house in some forest where he runs around doing chores and errands.

His parents are teachers, you see, and that means that it was also summer vacation for them so they decided that after every tiring school year, they would spend their summer vacation on a sonless honeymoon. Being the oh so caring parents that they are, they couldn't leave their dear little (Name)y-poo all alone in their house at Sicily and so they decided to ship him off to his father's mother at a forest, far, FAR away from society.

His grandmother, being the hermit that she is, prefers to be alone and has a tendency to shout at him (and everyone else) about every little thing. As her house is cut off from all civilization, it was practically comparable to a cave. No electricity and all thus no computer games to keep him occupied. His eyes couldn't wait to be re-glued to eye-killing digital screens. Nowadays, all that's killing them are endless clouds and the sun that hid not so secretly behind them.

It was boring as hell but he prefers laying around in the forest over running errands for his grandmother. His grandmother, being the annoying old bat she was, didn't like it when kids are relaxing and preferred to see them struggling and out of breath. That brewed his current situation in the middle of the forest, on a now-familiar dirt path, two pails in his hands. Yes, even faucets are not allowed in his grandmother's house.

Muttering under his breath, he said something about old hermits and their hermitty ways that were incoherent even to himself. The tree his grandmother had marked a long time ago came into view and he knew he was close to the stream. Glaring ahead with a huff, he dragged his feet forward.

The trees no longer hid the sky and the flowing of endless water reached his ears. Impossibly sparkling blue water greeted him once he passed the tree.

The river was beautiful, having little to no peers with technology destroying all its sisters. The forest was blessed not to have its river tainted with the disgusting olive green crap (his dad once called it) that factories fart out.

(Name) didn't care about this, however, wanting nothing more than to get the chore done and over with. He dropped his bucket sloppily, kicking off his slippers with equal care. Plopping down on his bottom, he scoops a bucket of water. The current doesn't seem to want to share, though, as it fought against (Name)'s thin arms, threatening to take away his bucket. He triumphed with much effort.

A soft wind blows against his cheek as he dips his second bucket in for another round with the current. Prevailing after a very close match of tug of war with the water, he was able to pull up his bucket. He began preparing to leave when something opaque in the transparent water catches his eye.

Blinking, he pulls out a ring of soggy flowers. He raises a brow at the circle knowing well that it was not Mother Nature who sewed the little flowers together. He then began wondering if the water is still drinkable after soaking a cluster of flowers.

The crunching of grass then interrupts his mental bitching about having to scoop up another bucket. Snapping his head towards the sound, he was greeted by a lightly panting green haired girl who is jogging up to him.

He blinks as the girl ran to reach him. He didn't know anyone else lived in the forest. He was pretty sure that the girl wasn't from somewhere near the city as his grandmother's tree was located pretty deep into the forest and it would take about a day or two to get there from the city on wheels.

He was also sure that she wasn't some girl from a cannibal tribe hiding in the forest as her light pink sundress didn't really resemble cavewomen's clothing.

"Um… excuse me," the girl calls, grabbing (Name)'s attention. "Those are my flowers."

"Oh?" he asked, pushing the ring in his hands towards the girl.

PLOP!

Blink, blink.

"Oops…" he says out of whim. Realizing that girls in his school, and perhaps in general, were sensitive, he moves to apologize. "S-Sorry…."

"It's alright," the girl replies sweetly, much to (Name)'s surprise. She gives him an equally sweet and surprisingly genuine smile that he notes is really pretty.

She then picks up the broken ring and walks to the river, laying it gently on the water. As if to comply with her wishes, the current weakens, pushing the flowers slowly but surely along the river.

(Name) was surprised at how carefully she treated the dead plants. Girls in his school were only that careful when handling their little friendship bracelets that they'd lose the next day. All of them liked flowers too but the way they pulled them out of their roots made him never want to be a flower in his next lives.

The next thing he noticed was the gentle smile the girl seemed to bid the flowers goodbye with. It almost felt as if the flowers were living beings. Well, everyone does say that they are but it's not like anyone really treats them like it.

Her eyes were blue, (Name) noted. And they looked even more watery than the river she was staring at.

"You're pretty," (Name) blurted out as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

The girl's smile disappears and pink fills her cheeks.

~End


	2. 2 Friends

Both Uni and the reader are 6

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**Friends:**

He's there again, leaning against the tree by the river, the (h/c) boy she met a few days ago.

The one that called her pretty.

Uni couldn't help but blush at the memory. She truly did not expect it and she found the boy fascinating. Living all six years of her life in her Family's forest mansion, she did not have many friends. Only the maids and guards her mother hired to take care of her but even they were rather awkward towards her. Her mother visited but only on special occasions and they weren't much.

Needless to say, she never had a friend her age. She had never even _seen_ anyone her age.

She lived pretty deep into the forest so she supposed it was normal. Though it was rather sad. Most of the days, flowers were her only friends. She would treat them like people minus the fact that she watered them. She supposed people wouldn't like it as much if she sprinkled them with water. She tried. She talked to them, she ate with them, and she took naps with them.

Flowers, though also living things, did not move, did not sleep, and did not reply when she spoke to them. Nobody understood when she said they were her friends, nobody including the maid that taught her how to make flower crowns.

Despite Uni's protests, she proceeded in picking the flowers saying that they were many anyway. Weaving the flowers together, the maid left Uni to help her co-workers do the laundry. She did not notice the tears in the corner of Uni's eyes.

Well, Uni supposed that her friends were still alive. Taking the crown from her head, she stared at her friends sadly.

She wondered if they were angry with her as they ran away from her with their new friend: the wind.

"Wait!" she cried, running after them. She wasn't able to reach them in time when they fell into the water and flowed away with the current. The current was strong and her legs couldn't catch up.

Her friends weren't going to get any slower and she knew that the river wasn't going to stop flowing. She was about to give up when the ring flowed into a pail. The owner of the pail pulled it up and stood. She was glad he noticed the flowers in his pail. He blinked ang pulled it out, he stared at her friends weirdly..

"Excuse me!" Uni called out of breath. "Those are my flowers."

And in an attempt to hand over the flowers, the boy broke the ring.

Silence had followed afterwards.

"Oops…" the boy began to look nervous. "S-Sorry…."

Uni swallowed her sadness, not wanting to burden a stranger with it. She smiled up at him gently. "It's alright."

She had seen a funeral once when she was very young. She remembered that the body was put in a very small coffin that was painted white. Their family symbol was printed on the cover. It was placed in a small boat that was filled with white, orange, and yellow flowers. Setting the coffin on fire, they pushed it into the river where it flowed until the body dissolves into ashes and the fire into the night.**[1]**

Now Uni didn't have a coffin to place her friends in and they would probably get mad if she picked more flowers just to offer it to them. Her mother always told her not to play with fire and so all she could do was send them off into the river, staring at them longingly as they flowed away.

"You're pretty."

… what?

Uni's sorrow transformed into surprise when she heard those two words come from the boy's mouth. Blood immediately flooded her cheeks and she stared at him with wide eyes.

The boy was unfazed; as if he did not say anything normal people wouldn't say to strangers. He simply stared back, a bored expression on his face.

"Don't go throwing stuff in the water," he scolded as he brushed past Uni casually.

Uni had simply stared at his retreating form, hearing him wonder out loud if the water was still drinkable. He shrugged to his own question before moving on.

Three days has passed and Uni made sure to come every day. The boy always came to the river to fetch two pails of water. Usually, he would take a break and lean against the tree, waiting until the sun decided to hide behind the clouds again, not noticing Uni who would hide behind a bush just to observe him. Today was no different,

but Uni wanted it to be.

Her heart pounded against her ribs as she began inching out of the bush. All her careful movements were easily put to waste, however, when a twig snapped under her feet. The boy was slow to react. A few palm-clamming seconds passed before he turned to her sleepily.

And yet to Uni, those seconds were spent with the boy snapping his head towards her questioningly.

"U-Um…!" Uni spoke nervously. The boy blinks at her sleepily.

"P-Please be my friend!" she cries, closing her eyes in fear of rejection.

"Hey…."

Wh-What if he thinks she's weird? And doesn't want to be friends?

"Hey…!"

What if he's inching away right now? Trying to get away?

"Hey!"

Did he want to tell her how weird he found her? Oh, she doesn't want to hear it!

"HEY!"

Her chain of thought broken, Uni stares at him fearfully. His eyes remain half-lidded but they showed no annoyance. He motions her forward and she complies feebly.

He pats the spot beside him and Uni sits down slowly. The moment her bottom touched the grass, the boy's head plops down on her lap. Uni stared at him shocked.

"(Name)," he said, closing his eyes. Uni blinks before her eyes soften.

"My name is Uni…" she introduces herself softly. (Name) groaned, muttering something about how she could ask such a thing.

Smiling sweetly, she realized that her friends had not left her, they simply led her to a new friend.

~End

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A/N:

1. So... can somebody guess whose funeral that was? :3


	3. 3 Laugh

Thanks to Pikapikaluv for reviewing! And thank you for being a smart cookie and answering my question. I will send you telepathic rainbows as I post this chapter. Anyway, here's the third! Don't own KHR bla bla- Oh! And Uni and (Name) are still six here!

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**Laugh**

Like every day, (Name) is once again sent out by his evil grandmother to fetch some water. He didn't mind as much since he can spend the afternoon napping by his grandmother's tree.

"(Name)!"**[1]** Uni greets him cheerfully, waving at him with much enthusiasm.

Or he can spend it with Uni.

"Hi," he replies less eagerly than she. Uni smiled.

She likes doing that a lot, he notices. Smiling.

"How long have you been here?" he asks walking to the river to complete his chore before hanging out with Uni.

"Um… not very long…" she replies from behind him, almost unsurely. (Name) was too busy pulling at the handle of the pail to notice.

The grumbling of her tummy is too hard not to notice, though.

(Name) blinked and looks behind him, at Uni who was blushing while clutching her stomach.

She was lying when she said she hadn't been very long, (Name) concludes.

Pushing his two buckets to one side of the tree, he looks up at its branches. It was the first time he noticed, in the many many years he had been sleeping under its shade, that his grandmother's tree was an orange tree.

He kicks off his slippers and stretches his arms.

Uni looks at him questioningly. "(Name)…?"

(Name) then jumps at the tree, hugging it as to not fall off. He climbs it, only to learn that it is painful as the tree is like its owner's legs, old and prickly. The thought made him shudder.

He really wants to go down, he isn't even that hungry. But… he didn't want to look like a wimp... in front of a Uni too.

As if reading his mind, Uni calls out to him, "Don't force yourself if you can't do it, (Name)!"

He didn't listen, he climbs up and up, hurrying to prove Uni wrong.

Then he slips.

"(Name)-kun!" Uni gasped.

He's still attached to the tree, he notices. He hugs to tree for dear life and hugs it close, (Name) looked up to see how far he was from the fruit, learning that it is actually in arm's reach. He allows one of his arms to let go of the tree's trunk to reach for the oranges. He grasps one and stuffs it in his back pocket. He makes to get a second orange that is farther from him than the first. Unable to reach the fruit, he stretches out more,

Ah! There we go. And now he slips _off_ the tree.

"(Name)!" Uni gasped, running towards the fallen boy.

Wincing slightly, (Name) sits up with the help of a very concerned Uni. That was when he felt something wet seeping through the fabric of his shorts. He stands up and allows his hand to travel behind him. His little traveler of a hand then comes back with its spoils: orange goo that seemed to really like his fingers.

"Pffff…" Uni let out failing to compress her laughter. She holds herself aaaaaand she fails. She laughs wholeheartedly but continuously tries to stops her laughter despite her continuous failure to in what (Name) guesses is guilt. Well, it's gotta be guilt. It's Uni and if he knew anything about Uni, it's that she's so polite she'd think laughing when someone looks funny is wrong.

"I-I'm sorry… I-I couldn't h-help myself," she apologized in between giggles.

(Name) was able to save one orange and so they decide to cut it in half.

And even as they were eating, Uni couldn't help but giggle in between bites. She knew she should stop but it was just too funny.

Unbeknownst to her, she didn't have to worry as (Name) wasn't offended in the least, he just found that he liked Uni's laugh.

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**1. **Okay, to those who had read this story on Luna, we will notice that I have removed the honorific "-kun" which Uni uses on (Name)'s name. This is because I realized that they are in Italy and Italians do not use honorifics. So yeah.

Thanks for reading, guys!


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